If someone were to ask me before I made the NBA, you going to have to go through all this, you're going to have to sign your soul away to play in the league, I still would have done it.
There's no nights off in the NBA. That's what makes it so special. That's why everyone loves the game.
My thing is, I want to play basketball, I would enjoy playing in the D-League, but at the same time I don't want to take an opportunity away from a young guy to get exposure. I'm still thinking about it.
I knew I could hang on in the NBA, but I wasn't going to play.
It's so much harder to make the NBA than people think it is.
I know that I love the whole game of basketball, and that's what I've always believed in.
I'm what you would term a lifer. Basketball is what I love. It doesn't matter where I'm doing it or in what position I'm doing it. I just love contributing to the game.
I played basketball, and I loved it. But I never thought of it seriously as being a professional.
In the NBA you better come to play every night, where in the NBDL the talent level just isn't there and maybe you have guys taking a night off.
There's hasn't been a day in my life since I was 9 years old that I haven't touched a basketball or done something connected with basketball.
Kobe was obsessed with the game of basketball.
With me and basketball, it became part of me.
I don't see myself not playing basketball. I don't see myself not around basketball.
I think every player who truly loves basketball wants to be in the game at all times.
When you want to play basketball and you get paid for playing basketball, you want to do it every single day. So I don't think I'll get tired of doing it.
People don't understand how hard it is to get to the NBA and that's where I want to be.
If you put it in perspective, I loved basketball before I loved everything else, you know what I mean? Before I had a girlfriend or even childhood friends, I had my basketball. So it's my first love.
I think I'm one of the rare people out there who still cares about the game of basketball.
I think when I moved to the United States and saw how serious basketball was and how good I was compared to everyone else. You just came from Canada and you're top five in the country; you're young and everyone says you can be a pro. That's when I started thinking: if I work hard, the dream can come true.
I'm a basketball player first and foremost. So I want to put basketball above everything else.
